Sun Valley halts Pottsgrove’s district run in 5A semifinals

NORRISTOWN >> This has been a season of firsts for the Pottsgrove boys’ basketball team.

The Falcons have already made their first Pioneer Athletic Conference playoff appearance since 2015, won their first district playoff game since 2015 and clinched their first state playoff berth since 2010.

On Wednesday at Norristown Area High School, No. 10 Pottsgrove made its first district semifinal appearance in three seasons against No. 6 Sun Valley. The Falcons ran into a red hot Vanguards team, falling 68-49 and ending their run toward the district championship.

Sun Valley will play West Chester East at Temple (2 p.m.) in Saturday’s title game. Pottsgrove will travel to Penncrest Friday (7 p.m.) for a state seeding game.

The sting of Wednesday’s loss isn’t softened by any previous accomplishments.

“Losing tonight isn’t OK because we made states,” Pottsgrove head coach Jack Flanagan said. “If these were students in my classroom, and we didn’t pass a test, I’d take a accountability as a teacher. And I take accountability as a coach, and we take accountability as team.”

“We competed, and we played with effort,” he added. “We just didn’t get enough execution. That’s why we’re playing on Friday night and not Saturday afternoon.

Sun Valley (18-7) blitzed Pottsgrove (15-11) out of the gates, starting the game on a 13-2 run. Senior forward Khaliym Smith, who led the Falcons with 22 points, gave Pottsgrove some life at the end of the first quarter, but the Falcons trailed 22-9 after eight minutes of play.

In the second quarter, senior guard Manny Clark, who finished with 12 points, once again began to ignite the Pottsgrove offense before the Vanguards used a box-and-one on Clark to shut it down. Sun Valley went into the break with a 32-18 lead.

Along with Smith and Clark, Robinson was the only other Pottsgrove player to make a field goal in the game, scoring 14 points.

“I knew they were really good man-to-man from same tape that we watched,” Sun Valley head coach Steve Maloney said. “I knew (Clark) and (Robinson) like space, so we just went to a matchup zone and just tried take up as much space as they had, contest everything, nothing easy…(Clark) is unbelievably quick. He got to his spot a couple times, but we didn’t let it become a habit.”

The Falcons came out of halftime and scored the first four points, making the score 32-22 with seven minutes left in the quarter.

Pottsgrove’s promising start did not last long as a 12-0 Sun Valley run followed, putting the Vanguards up, 44-22, just more than three minutes later. The Vanguards led 53-28 after three quarters and built that lead as large as 28 points in the fourth quarter.

“I feel like we had some moments,” Smith said. “We were a little slow trying to get our offense together. As far as defense, some things were adding up. I felt a little bit of a roll coming on, but we just fell short again on the offensive side. Their defense held us pretty well.”

“You can only ever go on a run if you’re getting stops,” Flanagan added. “If you’re not getting stops, then you’re just trading baskets…We didn’t get stops when we needed to.”

Sun Valley senior Vinny DeAngelo scored 27 points, going 12-for-12 from the field. His only miss was a free throw attempt, his last shot of the game. He scored 31 and 34 points in the Vanguards’ first two district games.

Along with DeAngelo, Marvin Freeeman scored 19 points, and Isaac Kennon added 10 points for Sun Valley. The Vanguards made just two threes, doing most of their damage inside on an efficient 27-for-37 shooting.

“I think it’s probably just communication, lack of communication, whose man is help,” Smith said of Pottsgrove’s defensive woes. “It’s like small things that lead to big things. Lots of those.”

Pottsgrove’s season will continue Friday with the game against Penncrest to decide who will represent District 1 as the three and four seed in the PIAA Class 5A tournament.

After that the Falcons will have their first state playoff game since 2010 and just second PIAA appearance since 1981.

“We just had a big loss, but  I think being in the district final four, this is a really big push for us,” Smith said. “We’ve never been here before, so I think this is going to do a lot for us in the long run. This is a big milestone that we’ve been looking for.”